Home
About NJRC
Building  Community
Rituals & Liturgy
Communities
Newsletter
Education
Links
Products
Join the Network

"Shelach"

Chana Andler

Twelve spies went out
To view the Promised Land.
Only two returned.
The rest were lost along the way,
Prey to doubt and indecision,
The certainty
That they were little men,
Too small to face the future
God might ask,
Their bones were left
Behind in the desert
To bleach away their fear.
A stern reminder
Of the consequences
Of little faith.

How often do we
play out this drama,
Measuring what can be
By what has been before_
We see the front
That others wear,
The illusion of perfection,
And judge ourselves
Inadequate to the task,
Incapable of achieving
Such heights of glory.
They are giants
To our children's eyes,
Puffed with virtues
We cannot possess.

But what in truth
Was ever asked of us
That we could not survive
Were we only
To hold our ground
And let the Spirit
Carry us along_
It's folly to gauge our strength
Against the gods and monsters
We create to undermine our dreams.
To judge our soul's potential
By the small amount
We can perceive.

Twelve spies went out
To view the Promised Land,
But only two returned.
May we find our way out
And back again,
Untouched
By what we think
We see.

[ From the latest issue of Or HaDor ] [ Translation of Psalm 19 ] [ Meditative teachings ] [ Hallel ] [ Heads or Tails ] [ From Psalm 22 ] [ Parades ] [ In a Plain Brown Paper Wrapper ] [ A Song for Raising Consciousness ] [ Elat Chayyim poem ] [ Shelach ] [ An Introduction to Schmelvic Aphorisms ] [ Passover Transformations ] [ Insights from our Rabbis ]